Subface condensee



Mar. 6, T923:

S. M. LILLIE SURFACE CONDENSER Original Filed Apr. 18, 1919 ReimedMar. 6,1923.

UNITI-:Dv STATES PATENT OFFICE- l SAMUEL MORRIS LILLIE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SURFACE GONDENSER.

Original No. 1,335,692, dated March 30, 1920, Serial No. 291,159, led: April 18, 1919. Application for reissue led March 28, 1922. Serial No. 547,527.

To all `10h-0m 'it may concern.'

3e it known that I, SAMUEL `MoRRIs LILLIE, a citizen of the United States, residing at 4804 Springfield Avenue, in the city of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State ,of Pennsylvania, have-invented new and useful Improvements in Surface Condensers-such, for example, as are employed for condensing the exhaust steam from steam turbines and engines, or, more specifically, improvements in that construction of surface condenser in which tubes extend through a tube plate from a water chamber on one side of the tube plate, into which chamber the tubes open, into and out of a steam-condensing chamber, usually through another y tube plate into a third chamber, into which the tubes also open.

Following the usual construction and operation, the chambers are closed to the atmosphere, ,the steam to be condensed is led into the second of the mentioned chambers and into contact with the e-xterior surface of the tubes, and a cooling wateror liquid is chamber into which the other ends of the tubes open. The cooling water or liquid entersone of these chambers, and leaves the other of the two after being heated by the condensing steam. The condensate formed from the condensing steam' is taken away from its chamber through a discharge below the tubes.v

Under the usual practice the pressurein the water chambers of the condenser is' into the. interior of the condenser through ory around the tube plates. My invention con` sists in placing a secondary tube plate or diaphragm near a tube plate on the steam or -condensing side ot' the tube plate, through which diaphragm the tubes also extend and between which and the tube plate a thin chamber closed at the bottom, at least, is

formed between the tube plate and the condensing chamber, into which thin chamber will collect leakage of liquid or air through the tube plate around the tubes or otherwise, means being provided for removing the leakage from the thin chamber.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying sheet of drawings by an ordinary single pa'ss surface condenser, in the several figures of which drawings like parts are designatedl by like characters.

Figure l is a longitudinal axial section of a cylindrical condenser embodying my in- .Vention with connected air and distillate pumps.v

Figure 2 is an end view of Fig. l looking at the left end of Fig. 1. It is a section of Fig. l parallel to the tube plate along the line 2. It shows one of the tube plates and the ends and spacing of the tubes opening through it. Fig. 3 is a larger view than Fig. 1 of the condenser: portions of it with respect to both longitudinal and cross dimensions are broken out.

Fig. L is a detail view-showing a part of a tube plate and of its adjacent secondary tube plate with a tube extending through both, and a method of packing a tube in the tube plate.

The type of condenser illustrated in the drawings is almost universally employed for steam engines and turbines, though usually with two or more4 passes for the cooling water to flow through the cooling tubes. It is abundantly illustrated and described in the publicity matter of manymanufacturers, and is fully known to those skilled in the art. In Aview of this,particular description of construction will be avoided in the follow. ing specification.

Referring to the drawings condensing chamberof this well known type of condenser. F is the vapor or steam main leading into the condensing chamber. Water chambers B and C with tube plates 1--2 'close the ends of the condensing chamber A. A battery of cooling tubes T extends through they A' is thel The tubes in this condenser are, with the exceptions noted below, supposed to be.

packed in each tube plate by means of fiber a, and screw ferrule f .in the usual manner which is illustrated in Fig. 4 for a single tube. c is an opening into the lower part of 'chamber C, to which a cooling :Water supply line maybe connected, and b, is an opening above the tube line into the chamber B to which a cooling water discharge pipe may be connected. A centrifugal condensate pump G is Connected by the pipe g, to the bottom of the condenser at its lowest point, and an air pump, H assumed to be of the hydraulic type, connects to the bottom of the condensing chamber A, by the pipe 7L. In the condensing chamber A, a short distance from the tube plate 1, is a secondary tube plate 3, in the chamber A, a. short distance from the 4tube plate 2, is the secondary tube plate 4,

the plates 3 and 4 as illustrated in the drawings extend respectively into recesses 54 and 6 formed in the shell of thechamber with distance rings 7. and 8 between themV and the tubeplates l and 2, respectively. Practically vapor and waterV tight joints are formed between the plates 3 and 4, and t-he condenser shell particularly at the bottom. The tubes pass through the secondary tube plates with sliding lits or with as little play as may be. Each secondary tube-plate 3 or 4 may be held firmly at the designed distance from its tube-plate l or 2, by expanding some of the tubes in said tube-plates, as at 1 and 3. In the opposite tube-plate and secondary tube-plate these tubes are not expanded, but are packed, as at 2, inthe said opposite tube-plate as illustrated for example in F ig. 4. -These particular cooling tubes are distributed over the cross section of the condenser, some of them are expanded in the tube-plate and secondary plate at one end of the condenser while the remainder of them are expanded in the tube plate and secondary plate at the other end of the condenser. 'lhe number and distribution of these binding tubes would be left to the judgment of the designer and would vary with conditions. Each. of these binding tubes is free expand and contract through its packing 1n one of the tube plates. Binding tubes are illustrated by tubes 9-10--11-12,

each o'f which is expanded in one tube plateA and in its adjoining -secondary tube plate, while ithas a sliding fit in the other pair of tube plates, and is packed in the maln tube plate l or 2, as the case may be. The cooling tubes may thus easily be made means for binding together a'tube plate and its secondary tube plate, but other means may be used, for

' example by distance pieces fastened to both pla-tes` as illustrated by the examples at n' and n. Fig. 3, each of 'which represents a pin fastened firmly to the tube plate 2,\and.

also to the plate 4 in any efficient manner.

.drain passage 14, and pipe e leading to the suctionbof the exhausting pump H, which is tle air pump for the condensr in this case. In the air line L4 between the chamber A, and the point where the drain lilies 13 and 14 join with the suction line to the air pump H, is placed a device I for maintaining a slight back pressure toward the chamber A, and therefore a slightly greater pressure in, A, than in the spaces between each tube plate and its secondary tube plate. This device is represented in the drawings by a swinging plate i suspended in a chamber o formed in the air line, It, in and across the path of the air through the line, so that its resistanceto the flow of the air will cause a slight back p-ressure in the line toward the chamber A.

The mode of operation for the condenser and adjuncts above described is `as follows:

The steam or vapor to be condensed is led into the interior of the chamber A through the inlet F, cooling-water is delivered continually through inlet c into the water chamber, C, from which it flows through the battery T of cooling tubes into the chamber B, and away from the chamber B through the discharge out-let, b, and lthe air pump H, which has been started maintains dense on the cooling tubes, the condensate falls-to the bottom ofthe chamber, and is taken away from it by the condensate pump G through the connecting pipe g. Any leakage of waterfrom either water chamber B or C through the packings around 4t-he cooling tubes, 0r through anyl other source for leakage, passes into the space a, or a 'falls to the bottom .of the space, and escapes through the drain 13 or 14 to the exhausting device, which in the drawings is the hydraulic air pump H of the condenser. If the condenser is atsuflcient altitude, a barometric tube e2 might extend to `a sealing tank below, and the leakagey water be taken` away through this tube. The very slightly greater vacuum in the spaces 8, s than in the chamber A makes it dillicult for water which, after leaking by'tube packings in a tube plate, may creep along a tube to the secondary :tube plate v3 or 4, to pass by the secondary tube plate into the chamber A, and therefore into the condensate, and it likewise prevents any air passing into the condensate which may get into the spaces i s, s', through or around thevmain tube plates or otherwise. Sometimes in condensers ot the class illustrated, the cooling tubes are all expanded into the tube plate at one end of the condensing-chamber A, as plate 2', for example, and in the other plate are secured by packing-s, ot' some description. In a condenser thus constructed the secondary tube plate may be dispensed with at the end of the chamber A toward the plate in which the tubes are expanded.

I claim as of my invention:

l. In a tubular surface condenser of the general construction herein described, a secondary tube plate located near a tube plate on the condensing chamber side of the tube plate, and containing holes for the tubes corresponding to the holes in the tube plate through which corresponding holes the tubes extend and means for removing from the space between the tube plate and secondary tube plate any liquid or air which may collect in the said space.

2. In a tubular surface condenser of the general construction herein described, a secondary tube plate located nearia tube plate on the condensing chamber side of the tube plate, and containing holes Jfor the tubes corresponding to the holes in the tube ,plate through which corresponding holes the tubes extend, and means for removing from the space between the tube plate and secondary tube plate any liquid or air which may collect in the said space, and means for maintaining in the said inclosed Space a the. cooling pressure less than. in the condensing chamber of the condenser.

3. In a tubular surface condenser ot' the general construction herein described, a secondary tubev plate located near a tube plate on the side of the tube plate toward the condensing,r chamber containing tube holes corresponding to the tube holes in the tube plate through which corresponding holes the cooling tubes extend, and forming with the tube plate a space for collecting leakage through the 'tube plate, connecting means between the tube plates and secondary tube plate fastened to each, and tending to hold them rigidly in their positions relative to each other.

4. In a tubular surface condenser of the general construction herein described, a secondary tube plate located near a tube plate on the side of the tube plate toward the condensing chamber containing tube holes corresponding` to the tube holes in the tube plate through which corresponding holes tubes extend, and forming with the tube plate a space for collecting leakage through the tube plate, means tending to hold the tube plateand its secondary tube plate rigidly in their relative positions consisting ina number ot' cooling tubes expanded in the tube plate and in its secondl ary tube plate.

5. In a tubular surface condenser of th'e general construction herein described, a secondary tube plate located near a tube plate on theside of the tube plate toward the condens-ing chamber containing tube holes corresponding to the tube holes in the tube plate through which corresponding holes the cooling 'tubes extend, and forming with thc tube plate a space for collecting leakage through the tube plate, means tending to hold the tube plate and its secondary tube plate rigidly in their relative positions consisting in a number of cooling tubes expanded in the tube plate and in its secondary plate, and in the tube plate at the opposite end of the condensing chamber packed in any way to permit sliding of the tubes in the tube tube plate a short distance, al secondary tube A plate such as described extending into the recess and a distance piece located in the recess between the tube plate .and the secondary tube plate and operating to press the secondary tube plate toward the shoulder ot' the recess when the tube plate is t'astened in its place.

7. In a tubular surface condenser of the general construction herein specied and having a secondary tube plate adjacent to a tube plate of the condenser with a leakage collecting space between the two plates, an air pump connected by air pipe line to the condensing chamber, which operates to remove the incondensable gases from the chamber, and a pipe connection between the suction port of the air pump and the space between the tube plate and secondary tube plate. l

8. In a tubular surface condenser of the general construction herein specified and having a secondary tube plate adjacentI to a tube plate of the condenser with a leakage collecting space between the two plates, an air pumpconnected by air pipe line to the condensing'chamber, which operates to remove the incondensable gases from the chamber, a pipe'connection between the suction port of the air pump and the space between the tube 'plate and secondary tube plate, and a yielding obstruction located in the air pipe line between condensin chamber and air pump and operating to lncrease slightly 'the difference in pressure between condensing chamber and vsuction port of air pump.

In, a tubular condenser of the general construction herein specified and having a secondary tube plate adjacent to a tube plate ot' the condenser with a leakage collecting spacefbetween the two plates, and means lfor removing incondensable gases from the leakage space between' the two means forremovingincondensable gases from v plates. th leakage space between the-.two pla-tes 10. Ina tubular condenser of the general' and for maintaining in this leakage space a lo construction herein specified and having a slightly lower pressure than the pressure 5 secondary tube plate.l adjacent to a tube existing in the condensing chamber.

Vplate of the.condenserwith a-leakage c01- lecting space, .between the two plates, and SAMUEL MORRS vLILLIE. 

